2017-18 SCHEDULE

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Marc-Andre Fleury will play in Pittsburgh as an opponent this season. And now, there’s a date for that occasion.

The Penguins released their 2017-18 schedule Thursday afternoon, and it included some notable dates:

• The Vegas Golden Knights will visit the Penguins Feb. 6, 2018, in their only trip to Pittsburgh. The Penguins will visit Las Vegas Dec. 14 for their first game at T-Mobile Arena.

• The Penguins will open the season Oct. 4 against St. Louis, raising the banner for the franchise’s fifth Stanley Cup championship. The next night, the Penguins will travel to Chicago for the Blackhawks’ home opener. That’s the first of 19 back-toback games for the Penguins this season, tops in the NHL. They also close the year on a back-to-back, playing at Columbus April 5 and home against Ottawa April 6.

• The Penguins’ “bye week” will come in mid-January, with no games from Jan. 8-12.

• There isn’t a long wait for a Stanley Cup final rematch between the Penguins

Penguins notebook

and Nashville. The Predators will visit Pittsburgh Oct. 7 for the Penguins’ second home game of the season, and the Penguins will return to the site of their Game 6 victory at Bridgestone Arena Nov. 11.

• The Penguins will travel to Washington early in the season, facing the Capitals in their second road game (Oct. 11). It’ll be a while, though, before the Capitals return to PPG Paints Arena. The first meeting between the rivals in Pittsburgh is Feb. 2.

• The Penguins will get their Western Canada trip out of the way early, playing five games between Winnipeg and Vancouver (as well as Minnesota, Edmonton and Calgary) from Oct. 29 to Nov. 4.

Ruhwedel re-signed

Penguins general manager Jim Rutherford has removed one item from his offseason to-do list by re-signing defenseman Chad Ruhwedel to a two-year contract worth $650,000 per season. The deal was announced Thursday.

Ruhwedel, 27, played in a career-high 34 regular-season games with two goals, 10 points and a plus-9 rating. An injury and lack of an available lineup slot limited Ruhwedel to six playof games. Keeping Ruhwedel was a key move because he is a right-handed shot — the Penguins have a bunch of lefthanded ones — and he is inexpensive. Brian Dumoulin and Justin Schultz are restricted free agents and due to receive big raises, while the Penguins are already spending $7.25 million on Kris Letang, $4.1 million on Olli Maatta and $2.1 million on Ian Cole.

Another move

The Penguins also announced the signing of forward Freddie Tiffels to a two-year, entry contract. Tiffels, 22, was the team’s sixth-round draft pick in 2015. As a junior at Western Michigan last season, he had nine goals, 12 assists, including two goals in the Broncos’ NCAA tournament loss to Air Force.

In three years at Western Michigan, Tiffels had 27 goals, 32 assists.